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To: annalex
I thought our discussion had risen above boogeyman rhetoric. I guess not. At any rate, the Roman Catholic Church never got along with any government for any length of time. As it smuggled people to safety from the Nazis, it would smuggle SS men to safety from the allies after the war. The whole history of the church has been wrapped up in activities that stood in opposition to unacceptable conduct by secular powers.

While National Socialism and Fascism are quite similar in many ways, they are not the same. They both worked, independently of each other, with the church as allies on some fronts and opponents on other fronts. In both existed Catholics like Hitler Youth Leader Balder von Schirach, who successfully challenged Nazi euthanasia policies in the 1930s, and both had fanatical atheists like one time communist J. P. Goebbles. But all this says nothing about Fascism, which National Socialism was not.

Fascism as fascism on a large scale occurred only in two conntries Italy and Spain. In both it had conflicts with the Church. It also had good relations with the Church running simultaneously, depending on what aspect of church-state relations are being looked at (as has been pretty much the history of the church with all most all governments through out history). Fascist in general view themselves as a type of progressive conservative in alliance with the Church in a protracted struggle against atheistic communism and its allies the atheistic liberal democrats (no political party implied here). The church likewise, treated fascists as allies in that struggle, giving both moral and enthusiastic endorsements to their efforts.

Just as National Socialism is not the same as Fascism, so also Christian Fascism is not the same as Fascism. But the philosophies are quite similar. Of course Christian Fascists would never call themselves fascists, but by definition, that is pretty much what they are.

314 posted on 05/03/2005 3:48:13 PM PDT by jackbob
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To: jackbob
the Roman Catholic Church never got along with any government for any length of time

Very true. Unlike your earlier assertions that the Church ran the state.

The stuff I posted is sufficent to show that fascism, even when distinct from National Socialism, is a form of state worship and as such is antithetical to Catholic Christianity.

It is of course true that the Catholics will offer support to any government that opposes atheist socialism, and rightly so. This is what happened in Spain and in Italy in 1920s-30s.

315 posted on 05/03/2005 3:58:30 PM PDT by annalex
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